 | | | | |
 | |  Give your female relatives--especially that in-law you've never seen eye to eye with-- a token of what Uppity Women Day is all about. How about an empowering good deed done in her name?
| | International email: make a 'daisy chain' of emails that stretches around the world---link up with foreign friends, and their friends, and so on, until the message comes back to you. |
| While you're at the courthouse, why not request a resolution from your city, town, or county to issue a proclamation from the governing board (mayor or board of supervisors) naming March 8 as Uppity Women Day in your locale? All that's usually needed are supporting letters from local worthies, such as the Women's Commission, the president of local AAUW, etc. If you know one of the city council or supervisors, approach them directly to endorse the idea. This is a great project for teachers and high school students. | | Feel ambitious? Honor an uppity ancestor by applying to your local municipality to rename a street or physical feature for her. A courageous figure like integrationist and school founder Prudence Crandall would be a good choice; or try your luck with a local woman of prominence. Do a petition and get signups at your gym, lunch group, book club, etc. Issue a press release about your efforts. | | Visit your nearest wax museum, to ponder how it all began with Madame Marie Tussaud, the Frenchwoman who began her eerie collection of wax heads during the French Revolution. Talk about the worst job in the world: She was hired to make death masks of the newly guillotined---and some of those heads, including Marie Antoinette, were her friends! |
| | Sing the Star-Spangled Banner today, in honor of Mary Young Pickersgill, the young widow who sewed over a million stitches to make "Old Glory," the huge American flag that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired Frances Scott Key to write the song. To be really obnoxious, sing it on your answering machine or voice mail. You can visit "Old Glory" (still being restored) at the Smithsonian website, if you want to see for yourself the appalling job that Mary took on—all for a payment of exactly $405.90. | | Win renown at work, or maybe even bar bets by asking questions about unsung uppity women! Examples: Who was the "Oklahoma Pocahontas"? (Milly Francis) Who was the first woman to circle the globe? (Jeanne Baret, 1769) Who were Adaline and Imogene Johnson, and what did they have To do with the U.S. Vice President of 1837-41? (He openly acknowledged they were his out-of-wedlock daughters, sired with a woman of color.) | |  | Have a latte on Abigail: When you make your daily stop at your favorite java joint, be sure to toast Abigail | | Stoneman—Boston's first coffeehouse entrepreneur, who in 1770, set up shop on the site of the Boston massacre. | |
| | If the phone is more your style, call the morning drive deejays or local talk show hosts on your local radio stations, and ask them the same questions. | | Send an anonymous "from an uppity woman" donation to a deserving group that helps women. Besides local groups, organizations like The Women's Memorial, NOW, AAUW, and others deserve your support. | | You've always wanted to write a no-holds-barred Letter to the Editor about some women's issue. March 8 is your day! Your letter could also be about the contributions of local women, past and present, in your town or city. |
